As England prepare to name their first Test squad of the summer, declaring the hand they intend to play against Australia when the business end of the season starts in late July, it is worth remembering that there is no great secret to playing the best team in the world: stick to the basics and keep your nerve.

This is the firm advice of the bowler who has fared better against them than any other in modern times — Harbhajan Singh, the Sikh Indian whose off-spin has earned him an extraordinary 56 Australian wickets in eight Tests and the sobriquet of “the Turbanator”.

Speaking from Punjab, where he has been delayed from joining Surrey by the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) prevarication over the legitimacy of his bowling action, Harbhajan predicts that England will lose if they allow negative thoughts to enter their heads. The key is holding your nerve under extreme fire.

“It’s great to have a special record against a very special team,” he says. “To succeed against the very best, you have to be at your best. They attack you and test your nerve. You need to be able to come back at them with controlled aggression. You have to remain positive all the time. They will attack you. From the start, they will try to wrest the initiative mentally and take the game away from you.

“They know better than anyone that whoever does the basics right comes out the winner. They will target those basics, so you have to stay focused and strong. Don’t allow negative thoughts to enter your mind. They target me, as they have done with so many bowlers across the world. They are very knowledgeable cricketers and know if they attack you, you might get confused in your approach. That’s when you have to keep your game tight and make sure you don’t play into their hands.”

He also warns that if a player has done well against them in the past, as Michael Vaughan, the England captain, has done, the Australians will come prepared with fresh plans.

Scarcely less remarkable than Harbhajan’s 32 wickets in three Tests in India in 2001 were his 21 in three Tests when Australia returned there late last year. Sub-continental conditions may pose special problems for visiting batsmen, but Harbhajan reminded everybody of Australia’s historical weakness against off-spin bowling.

“When I took 32 wickets, I was an unknown quantity for them,” he said. “In 2004 they arrived with a plan for me. I succeeded only because I stuck to mine. The first and third session, they will try to dominate you. They are all stroke players, be it Matthew Hayden, Ricky Ponting, Adam Gilchrist, Damien Martyn or Michael Clarke. Their game plan is to attack, be it 50 for four or 250 for two. If you have a plan for them, stick to it. Don’t change it too often. They will start the day with the idea of putting 400 on the board, and that is where you have a chance. If you stop the flow of the boundaries, they get irritated. At times, both attacking and defensive fields can be effective.”

Harbhajan was helped by bowling in tandem with another high-class spin bowler, Anil Kumble, whose brisk leg-breaks have earned him an almost equally impressive 88 Australian wickets in 14 Tests. Harbhajan suggests that the left-armer Ashley Giles, England’s sole spinner, could cause problems. “Giles is a mature, thinking cricketer. He has loads of experience and bowls a peculiar line. He is the sort of bowler who gets on your nerves, and that’s what they don’t like.

If he concentrates on his strengths, he can check these strokemakers. They will have a game plan for him, but he has to outwit them.

“Anil never stops trying and always believes a wicket is just round the corner. Intensity in purpose is his biggest strength. Whether it’s his first ball or the 70th over without a wicket, it’s bowled with the same passion and zeal. That’s why he is successful.”

Harbhajan says England will not survive unless they are mentally resilient. “I don’t know what England have in mind, but they will need enormous self-belief. The Aussies are good at making you uncomfortable on and off the field. You can either have cotton wool in your ears or give them back what they give. They hate it on the field and respect you off it.”

Australia’s domination of Test cricket is reflected in the statistics of their opponents, few of whom can boast even respectable figures against them. Of those still active in Test cricket, only eight batsmen boast averages above 40 runs per innings, and only eight bowlers average less than 40 runs per wicket. Vaughan, who has played one highly prolific Ashes series, in Australia two winters ago in which he scored 633 runs in five matches, leads a batting list dominated by Indians, most of whose runs were scored on home soil rather than the alien, bouncier surfaces of Australia. Another Englishman, Graham Thorpe, creditably holds seventh place with 1,235 runs at 45.7, although the most recent of his three centuries was eight years ago.